In the making...

Wow it's already December! This year I singed up to 2 Christmas fairs along side running Family Tree as I am a maker as well as a shop keeper. I got no idea how things will turn out but I have been busy making stocks for the festive season.
I will be at Rosemary Works school fair this Sunday 12-3, It's a small family orientated fair, nice little one to test my stall holder skills. Then I will be at Crafty Fox Market on 17th Dec at lovely Geffrye Museum 4-9pm.

Everything takes ages when you are making, preparing all by myself! But I'm getting there and very satisfying to see little neat piles of finished products. Here's some photos I took.

Tonight, 3rd Dec, we are having late night opening at Exmouth Market. Brewing up warm and spicy mulled cider and hosting a christmas decoration making (with peanuts) workshop 6-9pm.
Please pop by to our shop Family Tree, 53 Exmouth Market.

Nearly there...

My new venture I've been working on last few months has been coming along nicely. It took really a while but I enjoyed working with like minded local crafts people to get this off the ground.
I have designed 15 greeting cards, some with modern calligraphy by Myrtle & co, they will be hot foil blocked with copper and silver. Four Christmas designs supporting RANA where we adopted our Tunisian rescue cat. Here are super sneak preview and some snaps from Dot Studio who's been very helpful and professional choosing paper and suggesting different finishes. Of course everything is produced carefully using only high quality FSC certified uncoated card stock and 100% recycled paper envelopes. I'm so excited to starting something new.

Linen shoulder bags

I made a linen shoulder bag with riveted leather strap while back. I have been really enjoying using it since, and most importantly it stood the test of time and held together. So I made couple more to be sold at my shop. I've seen one of the leather bag makers punching holes at Design Junction and totally stole the technique and this time it was almost effortless making holes in leather. I especially enjoyed hiding pea green leather washers behind straps and rivets! I just sold out of linen tops, last one went to a lovely girl who is a painter. Hope these bags will find a good home soon too.

East Central Cycles

I have just entered t-shirt design competition at East Central Cycles, my local bike shop on Exmouth Market where I got my bike built. Their original logo features bike wheel and greyhound. I have applied my own illustration twist to it. Hope I will win! (winning is not everything but losing sucks...) Watch this space!

Mina Perhonen in the making

Just watched this serene and calm sequence. I enjoyed seeing the process of how the textiles and garments of mina perhonen were born and eventually bought by customers from their shops. So satisfying to see hand drawn images turned into textiles by skilled crafts men in Japan. 

End of summer

This is our last weekend before the new school term starts.  We have managed to fit in one more little break away from London. It was freezing and I had to pull the toggle of my sleeping bag in the middle of night to snuggle my head in. But glad we did it!

Shoulder bag making

I recently made little purses and clutches with luxurious Scottish linen. Then I experimented to make one of them into a shoulder bag with a leather strap. I got the basic principle from a friend and bought hole cutter, rivets and natural leather strips from a local leather merchant. I made some leather washers first to test out the cutter. Massive whack with a mallet on our kitchen table but it only made a little impression onto the leather! It was actually not as easy as I thought but eventually I managed cut through nice little holes onto 4 washers, 4 holes onto strap, 4 holes onto a linen pouch. Then another sharp whacking to fix rivets onto strap and bag itself. I need to find out if it's better to use something like steel block or it will ruin the teeth of the die cutter? There must be a better way! Anyhow here's a end result which I'm really happy with. This is a very first sample I will use and see if there's anywhere I need to improve. So far it has been a perfect little bag to go out with, really hope my riveting will stand the test of time.